1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of photography and particularly to a compact flash unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A current trend in camera design is to incorporate an electronic flash unit in the camera housing and yet make such housing relatively small in size in order to increase its ease of storage, portability and handling. Examples of smaller size cameras with built-in electronic flash units are the various disk film cameras, such as previously sold by Eastman Kodak Company and others. As a consequence of making a camera smaller in size, the separation between a built-in flash unit and the taking lens is reduced, thereby possibly creating an undesirable effect commonly known as "red-eye". When using a flash unit and a color print film, red-eye is typified by the pupils in the eyes of a person being photographed coming out red-tinted on a developed color print. Such phenonmenon is attributable to the incidence into the taking lens of the red light reflected from the retinas in the person's eyes illuminated by the flash light.
Red-eye may be substantially avoided by increasing the separation between the flash unit and the taking lens. As a result, light from the flash unit will reach the eyes of a person being photographed at too great an angle to be reflected by his retinas into the taking lens. In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,231,645, granted Nov. 4, 1980, 4,319,818, granted Mar. 16, 1982, 4,557,571, granted Dec. 10, 1985, D. 284,973 granted Aug. 5, 1986, D. 285,087, granted Aug. 12, 1986, 4,847,647, granted Jul. 11, 1989, 4,983,999, granted Jan. 8, 1991, and 4,996,548, granted Feb. 26, 1991, red-eye appears to be substantially avoided without increasing the size of a compact 35 mm camera to any great degree by providing a built-in electronic flash unit that is pivotable with respect to the camera housing. The flash unit is pivotable between an inactive folded position in which it forms an integrated part of the camera housing in front of the camera lens and/or the camera viewfinder, and an operative erect position in which it is sufficiently removed from the lens to permit picture-taking substantially without the occurrence of red-eye.
More to the point, in U.S. Pat. Nos. D. 284,973, 285,087, 4,983,999, and 4,996,548, a 35 mm camera comprises a camera housing and a flip-up flash unit including a head part having a flash emission window and a pair of front and rear supporting parts for the head part. The supporting parts are pivotally connected to the camera housing to permit swinging movement of the flash unit to a folded storage position in which the head part and the supporting parts cover respective portions of the camera housing and to a non-folded operative position in which the head part and the supporting parts are elevated from the camera housing with the flash emission window substantially facing a subject to be photographed and with the rear supporting parts located behind the front supporting part to brace the front one. At least one of the supporting parts may be releasably detented when the flash unit is in the folded or non-folded position to secure the flash unit in the respective positions.